BSC Young Boys will host vs one of the two Liverpool representatives in UEFA Europa League – Everton, when both teams will meet in the first leg of the 1/16 finals on “Stade de Suisse Wankdorf” in Bern. Young Boys will come after a 4:2 success in Swiss Super League, where the squad of Uli Forte holds 2nd place, and the team won with a pretty comfortable result over Grasshopper in the last round, while we can’t say the same for the away team. Everton is far from the last season efforts and now “The Toffees” are not so far from the relegation zone in the English Premier League, holding the 12th position with 27 points, and Roberto Martinez starts to feel the pressure with every next game. Last fixture of Everton was their midweek (last week) match vs Chelsea, because the team is already eliminated from the FA Cup, which was last weekend, and Everton lost again – 0:1 vs Chelsea in their last clash, which was their seventh defeat in the last 8 away fixtures for Everton. Pretty poor stats for Everton, who have only 2 wins in the last more than two months and a half, and only one from them is in 2015 – 0:1 win vs Crystal Palace in London.
Young Boys will chase their opportunity to eliminate English opposition in Europa League, where the team from Bern is with 7 wins from their last 7 games, and the last home defeat of Young Boys in Europe is against the city rival of Everton, Liverpool – “The Reds” met Young Boys in the group phase of season 2012/2013, where Liverpool won in Switzerland with 5:3, while the second game in Merseyside ended with a draw – 2:2. Now Young Boys will meet against another Merseyside opponent, and this time they are in perfect home form – three wins in this year’s group phase, in which Young Boys won without to concede – 5:0 vs Slovan Bratislava, 2:0 vs Napoli and 2:0 vs Sparta Prague. Results, which helped to the Swiss side to take the 2nd position in Group I, with only 1 point behind the group winners from Naples – 13 against 12.
Everton will play against Swiss opponent for first time and the team from Merseyside will try to remain undefeated away from home, in Europa League this season. Everton won first position in one from the toughest groups – Group H, where Everton won in Wolfsburg – 2:0, while their other two away fixtures were draws – 1:1 vs FC Krasnodar, and a goalless draw against Lille.
Final conclusion, betting prediction and possible squads of Young Boys and Everton – UEFA Europa League 19.02.2015
Young Boys will have the home advantage here, and they will play on artificial grass, which can also be considered as an advantage for the home team. Uli Forte can count to his key players, while injured are only one of the goalkeepers – David Von Ballmoos (but the main goalkeeper will play), and Matías Vitkieviez, which don’t have a single game in Europa League this season, so this isn’t a blow for the hosts.
Everton will travel to the capital city of Switzerland with not the highest morale, considering their recent results, and Roberto Martinez will have some important absences for the upcoming Europa League clash. Out for the Thursday evening tie are the names of Tony Hibbert, Leighton Baines, Aiden McGeady, while Arouna Kone, Leon Osman and Steven Pienaar are all doubtful for the upcoming clash. and Roberto Martinez will make some rotations in his starting eleven.
Our expectations are that the home side will avoid the defeat, and we don’t think that the English team should be considered as a favourite in Switzerland. That’s why we will pick the Asian Handicap +0.25 on Young Boys.
Possible starting XI:
Young Boys: Mvogo – Hadergjonaj, Vilotic, von Bergen, Lecjaks – Bertone, Sanogo – Nuzzolo, Kubo, Steffen – Hoarau. (4-2-3-1)
Everton: Howard – Coleman, Distin, Jagielka, Stones – Besic, Barry – Mirallas, Barkley, Naismith – Lukaku. (4-2-3-1)
Referee: Manuel De Sousa from Portugal.